Germany proposes a road tax aimed primarily at foreigners

BERLIN - Germany announced plans on Monday to charge a road-use fee on all cars using its roads and highways, a measure aimed at the foreign-registered cars that make an estimated 170 million trips to and through the country each year.

Alexander Dobrindt, the transport minister, said foreigners would be able to buy 10-day road-use passes for 10 euros, or $13, and two-month passes for 20 euros. Dobrindt added that no foreigner could expect to pay more than 100 euros every 12 months.

Germans will be compensated for the new road-use fee through reductions in the current vehicle tax, Dobrindt said, and "will not pay more than they do today." The goal is to have the fee in place by 2016.

To German voters, car ownership and the ability to drive at unlimited speed on some stretches of highway are considered among the most sensitive and sacrosanct privileges.

There is already a toll on trucks, which will continue. Truck traffic crisscrossing Germany is blamed for much of the damage to its highways and roads.

In Germany's west, roads and bridges have fallen into disrepair over the two decades since unification, while billions of euros have been spent on infrastructure in the more sparsely populated former East Germany.

Critics were swift to argue that the proposal would discriminate against Poles, Czechs, Austrians, Swiss, Dutch and other neighbors by effectively making those living near the border pay a charge for crossing into Germany for regular errands or work, even if they did not use the highways.